Chapter One
Summer 1816, Number Nine
Mockingbird Square, Mayfair
Olivia was in tears again.
Margaret Willoughby hesitated outside her cousin’s bedroom door. Should she knock and ask what the matter was? She’d done so last night and the night before, and after a brief pause—no doubt to stifle her heartbreaking sobs—Olivia had answered that she was perfectly well. Just a slight headache. Nothing to worry about!
William the Pug sat at her side, watching with interest as Margaret tried to make up her mind. William was Olivia’s dog, but he seemed to have attached himself to Margaret since she’d arrived in London from Northumberland.
Olivia’s husband, Rory Maclean, said that William knew a kind heart when he met one. He’d smiled when he said it, and Rory had the sort of smile that would make most women’s hearts flutter.
As far as Margaret was aware, Rory had never looked at another woman, not since he’d married Olivia. That wasn’t why her cousin was crying. The reason was far more complex than a straying husband.
They had been so happy up until a week ago, but then Olivia’s father had paid them a visit. Now their marriage was on the verge of disaster and Margaret didn’t know what to do about it. She wasn’t sure there was anything she could do, which was a pity. For purely selfish reasons, she had very much enjoyed living here in Mockingbird Square.
She knocked. “Livy? Open the door. Please.”
A sniffle and then footsteps approaching. The door cracked open on Olivia Maclean’s woebegone face.
“Oh Livy . . .”
“There’s nothing you can say,” her cousin spoke in a strained, husky voice. “I know you told me in the beginning I was rushing into marriage, but I was so sure . . .”
“Oh Livy,” Margaret said again, and decided she wasn’t being very helpful. “What are you going to do?”
“I suppose I can divorce him.”
Her cousin’s eyes widened. “Divorce is such a disgraceful end to a marriage,” she whispered. Her father would say the same, and although Margaret did not always agree with the Reverend Willoughby, on this occasion she could only see more misery for Olivia in such an action.
There were footsteps on the stairs at the end of the passage.
“No, no, I won’t speak to him!” Olivia closed the door and turned the key.
Rory was approaching from the shadows with his dark hair windblown and his hazel eyes wild. Margaret, ready to defend her cousin, saw at once there was no need. Although he looked quite desperate and not at all like the handsome man she had come to know over the past six months, Rory was suffering as much as Olivia.
“My wife?” he said.
“She doesn’t want to speak to you,” Margaret repeated her cousin’s words. She bit her lip, wishing she didn’t like Rory Maclean so much. He had behaved reprehensibly in his marriage to Olivia—this was all his fault—and yet . . .
He put his hand on the door, palm against the wooden panelling, as if he could reach his wife that way. “Thank you, Margaret,” he said quietly, not looking at her.
Margaret opened her mouth, closed it again. With a sigh she turned and went to her room, William the Pug on her heels. She didn’t light the candle but walked to the window and stared out.
Outside, the square was illuminated by the flare of the lamps which were lit every evening by the lamp lighter. Beyond their glow the shadows were deep, and the central garden was a mere silhouette of trees. She opened her window and leaned against the sill, breathing in the air and enjoying the warm summer evening.
If Olivia and Rory did go their separate ways then this town house would be sold. Olivia would no doubt return home to her doting parents, and Margaret would have no choice but to return to her own home in Northumberland and her father the vicar. She accepted her father had many good characteristics, but he was not an affectionate sort of man. He was chilly and distant and tended to look harshly upon anything he considered a human frailty.
Margaret knew that in his opinion his daughter seemed to have a great many moral weaknesses.